news

WB Discovery looks to license franchises including Batman, Harry Potter and more to other studios

VaselineAugust 8, 2024

1 3 minutes read

WB Discovery looks to license franchises including Batman, Harry Potter and more to other studios

Batman. Justice League. Harry Potter. Looney Tunes. Game of Thrones. Warner Bros. Discovery’s list of intellectual property is staggering, and a lot of it seems ripe for the making of video games. If you thought WB has been a little slow to capitalize on that library, it sounds like the company’s leadership agrees, and is planning to not only make more of its own games, but also license some of its biggest franchises to other game studios in the future.

Today on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q2 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav and president of worldwide streaming and games JB Perrette answered a question about the “strategic value” of games to Warner Bros. given its recent “uneven performance.” The company had just reported that gaming revenues were down 41% year over year due to the disappointing performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League compared to the massive success of Hogwarts Legacy last year. Does WB see games as a core part of its portfolio?

The answer appears to be yes. Both Zaslav and Perrette explained that they wanted to grow the gaming business, particularly in the free-to-play space, which Perrette believes can help balance out some of the cyclical ups and downs of the console industry. That’s one of the reasons WB acquired Multiversus developer Player First Games earlier this year.

Zaslav went on to note that WB not only wanted to continue leveraging its 11 studios, but that “there’s also a lot of interest from others to capitalize on some of that intellectual property for gaming, and we’re looking at that.”

Below you will find their full answers:

Perrette: We look at the evolution of storytelling in interactive entertainment as a space and say it’s one of the unique areas in media that’s growing, both in terms of time spent, in terms of engagement, and in terms of revenue. And so we still see this as a huge opportunity for us. We know that our franchises, particularly in a world where the games industry is having a hard time launching brand new franchises for a number of reasons including IDFA write-offs and more challenges with marketing and customer acquisition. And that franchises like the ones we have are in high demand and can help launch games. You still need a great game, and the reality is that we’ve had the unfortunate – in a short period of 12 months we went from having a record year in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy to unfortunately the other end of that spectrum with Suicide Squad. And part of that business is still about hits, but one of the areas that we’re particularly focused on, and that’s about half of the $200 billion games business, is the free-to-play sector.

And the Player First deal was really about strengthening our capabilities in that space. Because we think we’re underpowered and we have more opportunities to grow in that space, which is a big part of the market. And as we do that, it’s also going to help provide a little bit more balance to our games business, from the inevitable cyclicality of more console-based releases that have a 3-4 year time horizon and a little bit more of a bumpiness, even if you do well. So we continue to believe strongly in the games space, we want to continue to see and figure out how we capitalize on it and grow in that space, and we’ll certainly tell you more about that as time goes on.

Zaslav: One of the strategic advantages of owning all of our IP is, as the world has changed, in the past you would launch a movie or a TV show and then you would make a game. But one of the reasons that Hogwarts Legacy was so successful and was the #1 game last year was because you could go to Hogwarts Legacy and go into the game and be part of that world. And I think that’s ultimately a big part of where this industry is going. That we make a movie, whether it’s Batman or Superman or Harry Potter, and maybe there’s a TV show, but the ability to go into that world and have that experience of spending time with all of the characters is something that we still own. We have 11 studios here and we have a lot of IP. And there’s also a lot of interest from others to come and capitalize on some of that IP for gaming, which we’re looking at. Because as JB said, we need to be bigger. We’re interested in capitalizing on the intellectual property that we own and the value that it has in the gaming space.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported revenue of $9.7 billion for the quarter, but an overall net loss of $10 billion, of which $9.1 billion was due to impairment charges. The company also reported that subscription services increased by 3.6 million subscribers from the previous quarter, bringing the total to 103.3 million.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

VaselineAugust 8, 2024

1 3 minutes read

Vaseline

Related Articles

Margot Robbie’s sheer top remixes maternity wear for millennials

10 of the Best Science Fiction Books for Teens – Destructoid

Fat bike users in accidents are young and have more serious injuries

NBA Rumors: Knicks, Nets linked to potential Giannis trade, but is it realistic?